The Ringer NFL Show - Leonard Fournette News, Alvin Kamara Trade Rumors, and Our Favorite Targets in Each Round

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

We discuss Leonard Fournette getting cut from the Jaguars, the recent rumor of Alvin Kamara on the Saints' trading block, and highlight our favorite players from each round of a 12-team draft before answering our first listener question! Round 1 (19:31) Round 2 (23:39) Round 3 (27:43) Round 4 (29:59) Round 5 (33:18) Round 6 (40:17) Round 7 (44:14) Round 8 (46:14)  Round 9 (48:39) Round 10 (50:33) Round 11 (51:47) Round 12 (54:28) Round 13 (58:57) Listener Question (61:48) It’s draft season, so check out The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide and use our Draft Tracker to keep track of your players as you draft. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We all know the consequences of driving drunk, but one thing is for sure. You're wrong if you think it's no big deal. Drive sober or get pulled over. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I'm Danny Hyphitz here at Danny Kelly and Craig Korlbeck, and this music right now is not the mood. Craig, can we change the music to something more appropriate? It's a sad day in the fantasy football and real life football community. Leonard Fournett has been cut from the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Lenny. Craig, this is, what are we supposed to feel here? Guide us. We're supposed to feel sadness and bewilderment because Leonard Fournett is not a bad running back. This may make people think he's a bad running back, but he's not. I firmly believe that if Leonard Fournett scored nine touchdowns last year that none of this would be happening. Yeah. The touchdown variance got him. He had three touchdowns last year. His rookie year, he had 10. If he had 10 touchdowns last year, it would be a top 10 fantasy pick. If he, like, punched in all those one-yard runs that he just barely didn't get over the line, this would be happening. And now I don't know what team he's going to be on. But I hope he finds a new home

that would care for him. Leonard Fournette will always be defined to me for two reasons. One, his cover photo is of Adam, like God creating Adam on the Sistine Shepard. Apple, but it's Leonard Fournette. And then, two, D.K. describing his running style as he's a bumper car. Yeah, yeah. Let's stick with Jacksonville for a second. D.K., the guys behind Fournette are Rikwell-Armstead.

You got Chris Thompson, who's kind of a pass-catching back, and maybe he's there to play. Maybe he's there as a veteran leadership. He was very popular when Jake Rood and the coordinator in Jacksonville was in Washington. And then there's also Divine a Zigbo. And then those are the three guys that are probably going to be splitting the Jackwell's backfield. So which of those guys do you want in fantasy? And two, do you want any of these,

Jaguars in fantasy this year. I don't think you should spend a lot on any of these guys, frankly, just because there's probably going to end up being a committee approach in that backfield. I do think that right now, Divino Zygbo has the upper hand because Reckwell-Armsted has been missing from a lot of training camp. I think he was on the COVID list early on, and then he's been battling an injury. So he's just missed a lot of reps. Zygbo has really benefited from that.

And I think, like you said, Chris Thompson's going to be a third downback. So if you're going to go for anyone right now, to me, it looks like, Zygbo's sort of the lead person in that in that backfield but again it's probably going to end up being you know a situation where none of these guys are going to really help your fantasy team so I'm mostly just avoiding this overall I'd say that it you know it's not super exciting um but you never really know Zygbo is the guy that I would take a take a bet on right now I feel like he's the high ceiling dart throw but somebody like Chris Thompson is probably your safer bet to have the most consistent season uh sports illustrators john shipley reported last week on

Friday that Chris Thompson's been starring. It has been one of the stars of their Red Zone drills in camp. And then he's been, when Leonard Fournett was on the team, he was taking snaps from Leonard Fournett in the Red Zone. And obviously Jay Gruden adores Chris Thompson. So I do think there's a little bit of value. I think if you're comfortable with your running backs and you need like a flex by week guy, I think Chris Thompson can do it. I mean, there were a couple seasons when he was healthy in Washington before he got hurt. Yeah. Where he was really, really good. He was like a top 10 back. You know who this actually makes me pretty intrigued for is living. Viscay Chanault, the rookie.

He is a guy that, number one, he's been doing really well in training camp, according to pretty much every report we've seen. He's been making a lot of plays, you know, runs really good routes, good with a ball in the air. But he's also a type of guy that could be used in sort of running back situations,

whether that be like a sweep or actually lining him up in the backfield. Is he a lot of work? Is he a big guy or a small guy? Yeah, he's a big guy. He's like 220 pounds-ish, I think. And he, in college, they used him, Colorado used him a lot as a lot.

wildcat guy. So direct snap runs, very powerful runner. So I think that's something just to kind of keep in mind. Number one, I do think this is, this means the Jaguars are probably going to be a pretty pass heavy team. They're going to be behind a lot. I think if anything, this helps the receiver group have more opportunity. And I don't know, Chanel to me, it's just like a really interesting late round guy to just kind of like keep an eye on. He's getting a lot of reps in the slot. If he gets running back reps too, man, that would be really interesting from a fantasy, football point. It's kind of like the Jalen Hurd discussion that we've been having over the last two years

with the 49ers. Chanel is kind of in that same mold where he's a slot receiver slash, you know, gadget guy that could end up getting some touchdowns. Okay, so Gardner Minsh you up, Jaguars receivers up, Jaguars running backs, sure. Fournet for a second. Let's say that Fournet, let's say Fournet remains unsigned and you're in your draft and Lennar Fournet Free Agent is where do you want to take him if he doesn't have a team yet? Yeah.

because I think it's pretty simple. It's very hard. I think it's really simple. Like here's the thing. We could throw out a ranking and number. It is complete, like what we think on this is irrelevant because he's going to sign somewhere.

It's about how much you like Fournette, where you're willing to take. I think it's very simple. When you get to the point in your draft, where you look at the list of running backs who are left on the board, and your first thought is, oh my God, these guys suck.

Then you can take Leonard Fournette. Then you're allowed. Like as long as the guys left are good and you can see them having a role or whatever you're excited about them. take those guys and then when that runs out, take Fournette. Well, I think you have to consider how many options are there for Fournette to come in and get 200 carries? Right off the bat.

I mean, like, if he signs with the Patriots and he became the starter for the Patriots, or at least the sort of the big back for the Patriots, that would be sort of interesting to me from a fantasy point of view. Washington would be interesting. Yeah, Washington makes sense to me. Yeah, he could be the Legerrett Blunt in New England. But there's not a lot of options. So I... No.

Even if you look at like, like, J.K. Dobbins. is the running back 36 right now in Fantasy Pro's ADP. Like, J.K. Dobbins has like a realistic track to like just be awesome this year. But if Fournett signs with the Chiefs and Clyde Edwards, Hilar never gets hurt, I mean, Fournett won't even be worth anything. You know what I'm kind of, the person that I'm thinking of that sort of in the range that I'm kind of putting him is like a Tevin Coleman. Like you're a backup probably. Matt Breedah.

Yeah, like that sort of range, the late 30s in terms of the running back rankings, that's sort of where I imagine for now. Without a team, before we know exactly what's going to happen, that's sort of like where I've dropped him back to you guys have any ideal landing spots? Do you want him to go anywhere? For real life or for fantasy? Let's do fantasy.

I think the Seahawks. No, seriously. For fantasy? Well, I mean, it would be bad for Chris Carson, but I'm saying that aside from Washington whose offense is terrible, I love Chris Carson, but Chris Carson has not really stayed healthy. And if something were to happen to Chris Carson, Rashad Penny is going to probably start the year on PUP.

Carlos Hyde is there. The Seahawks are one of five teams in the NFL who really in neutral situations really prefer to run than pass. And it's really on one of those five teams and he's not going to go to the Niners, he's not going to go to the Vikings. Seahawks are one of those teams that I could totally see them being like, well, you know what? Yeah, like him and Carson,

that's a hell of a combo. And then if anything happens to Carson, then yeah, he could get 250 carries. What about the Chargers? Yeah. I was thinking the Chargers actually, too, because there's such a There's an unknown element to whether it's Joshua Kelly or Justin Jackson as kind of the Melvin Gordon replacement. Echler is obviously the top guy there.

But the way that they used their running backs last year, the Chargers, I think Fortnite would perfectly kind of fit into what Melvin Gordon was doing, don't you think? Well, Craig, you're the Chargers quarterback. So why don't you tell Anthony Lynn that that's what you know? Yeah, I mean, we could always use more players in the field, more talented skill players. You know what I mean? We're a little bit thin right now. If he starts out on the third string, then you'll be handing off to him.

So let us know how that goes. Is Fornett a bust in Jacksonville? Did he officially not work out? I feel like he was fine. Well, the term bust is unfair because it implies the players. The problem, it's not Leonard Fornett's fault that the Jaguars took him over to Sean Watson and Patrick Mahomes. That's Jacksonville's fault. So Jacksonville is a bust for taking him forth.

It's like no one would care if Leonard Forenett got took in the second round. The issue is he got taken ahead of two elite quarterbacks. One's going to be like a Hall of Famer. and then the other 10 running backs who went behind him are all really good. So they look like morons. But that's not Leonard Friend's fault. So the bust implies that coaching and development

isn't a part of being an NFL player. Yes, but no. We've given Lenny his deserves time. We love you, Lenny Fornes. All right, the next piece of news we have to get to is, are the Saints going to trade Alvin Kamara? Insane. Wow.

Okay, so today, which is Tuesday, Josina Anderson reported, quote, I'm told the Saints are open to trading R.B. Alvin Camara per source, end quote. Camara's in a contract year. They've been negotiating with the Saints going back and forth. And then Josian Anderson had her report. NFL Network's Ian Rappaport reported, quote, spoke to Saints, R.B. Alvin Camara and his agent and neither has asked for or demanded a trade. As of today, they thought they were actively negotiating and making progress on an extension.

Camara has never threatened to hold out and has been in the building every day, end quote. We've also since learned that Alvin has not practiced since August 27th. There's Sean Payton said he had a stomach bug. Apparently maybe there's an epidural in his back. But he hasn't practiced in a few days. But then NFL networks, Tom Pelliserra,

reported that Alvin Camaro intends to be in the Saints facility tomorrow and intends to practice. So is this trade thing like out of the blue? Like, is this like you're going to couples therapy with your girlfriend? and then you find out she's on hinge and you're just like, what? This is very bizarre.

It kind of came out of the blue and it sounded like, based on multiple reports that I saw, one from Nick Underhill, one from Pelliserra, it sounded like they're very close. They're only like a few million dollars apart on where these negotiations are going

and then all of a sudden this trade thing drops out of the blue. So I don't know how that's going to affect it. I don't know if it will affect it. To me, if it's just, you know, like right now, again, it's Tuesday, this feels like a negotiation tactic more than something that's really going to happen, but you just really never know.

It's something that you just have to be kind of aware of and assume that risk when it comes of fantasy football. I agree. So Charles Robinson at Yahoo reported that the team is offering Alvin Kamara about $12 million a year. I know I'm going back and forth in Kamara, I'm sorry. But they're offering about $12 million a year. And Kumar wants $16 million a year or so from like Christian McCaffrey money.

So it's about $4 million a year. And I agree that I think that this is a tactic of, do you want to play in Super Bowl? caliber team or not sign this money. And again, it's worth looking for the past 10 years of how the Saints have been running their business, which is they go all in every year. They traded a first to move up like seven spots from Marcus Davenport a couple years ago. Seven spots in the first round, they gave up their next year's first. They give up first all the time. They spend money they don't have every year to win the Super Bowl. The thought that in what may be Drew Brees is last season, they're going to trade away Alvin just seems far-fetched.

I agree with you. I think it's especially when they gave Tayson Hill 20. million over two years. I mean, I like TASM. I wrote an article about how Taysom is actually a valuable player, but Camara is like undoubtedly a bigger part of that offense. You know, like, this just seems ridiculous. Okay, so it's Tuesday now, but this episode will be on Wednesday when people are listening to it.

But I would imagine most people's drafts are in the coming weekend. So let's say we've heard nothing by the time the weekend comes, and you have the fourth pick in your draft. how do you feel about Alvin Kamara? Man, it does make me a little bit nervous because the Saints is just the perfect spot for him, honestly. Drew Breeze is going to dump it off to him a ton. He's a huge part of the passing game.

He's at 81 catches exactly for three years running. But at the same time, I think he would be good anywhere. I just don't think he would be as big of a fantasy factor on really any other team. So it does make me a little bit nervous. At the end of the day, though, I feel like I still would take him at four. I don't, God, this is like going to be a famous last word sing.

It doesn't feel like he's actually going to get traded. So my question to you, Danny Haifitz, is what's more likely that he's traded or that he misses week one because they don't have a contract figured out? That's a good question. I think it's more likely, actually, that he would have sit out week one than get traded because I don't think the Saints have any incentive to trade him. And I don't think any team's giving up a first round pick for him, to be honest. I certainly don't think that any team's going to send an offer that will convince the New Orleans states to invest in the future instead of the present. And ultimately, they want to win this Super Bowl. I really don't think they ever look two years ahead.

Jeff Duncan, the athletic reporter who has covered the Saints for a long time. He said he confirmed Josina Anderson's report. He says, I can't confirm their first option is to sign Camara to a long-term deal, but only at the right price. If not, they're open to a trade. And to be clear, open to a trade, there's a lot of. a wiggle room there. Open to a trade means they were closed before. We're open to a fourth first round picks. But I think the important part is here. I don't think he's going to get traded. I do think he's going to stay with the Saints. But I'm in the squishy middle round of

right now I have him as fourth in all my rankings. There is no world where I'm letting him slip out of the first round. But I totally understand if you prefer the security of other running backs in the first round. Well, let's compare him to Dalvin Cook. So I'm assuming that he hasn't moved up, right? Like Christian McCaffrey, number one, Seek one's two. Zeke is three. I assume no one's moving him up after this news. So he's not for it anymore. Or at least if you take him there, I'm cool with that because I don't think he's moving. But I also totally get if you don't want to take him at four.

Well, forget what you're cool with. What are you doing? I actually have a draft tonight. I think that I would be cool moving him. I think I would take probably Clyde Edwards O'Lear over him. And I think I would take... See, the thing with him and Dalvin Cook is now him and Dalvin Cook are in the same situation where Dalvin's also in a contract year, also unhappy with his contract.

I think I would take Camaro over Cook. I'm more confident the combo of Cook's injury stuff, I'm more confident that the Saints want Alvin Kamara than I am that the Vikings want Alvin Cook. Alvin's harder to replace. I would take Camar over Cook, but I also understand if you want Derek Henry over those people, even though I would not take Derek Henry over Kamara.

The people that I think that you could take ahead of Kamara are Christian McCaffrey, Seek, Clyde Edwards-Alaire, Derek Henry, Michael Thomas, and Devante Adams. I think anything other than those people over him is a mistake. And if you want through Delvin Cookin too. But I'm not getting into Miles Sanders, Joe Mixon. I would not take any of those people over Kamara. What do you think, D.K.?

Who could Bill O'Brien trade to the Saints right now? Deshawn Watson. Who on that team? Oh, that's a good idea. Deshawn Watson for Alvin Kamara. Yeah. This is just... Okay, so it sounds like Hyvitz is dropping him to five.

Well, no, the thing we always say is that you're not supposed to blow your pick, your first round pick. Yeah, but at the same time, like, fantasy, you don't want to go for, I don't know, I just feel like ultimately swing for the fences in your drafts because you don't want to get sixth place. I don't know. You know what I mean? Like, there's no point in getting middle of the pack. Now, with a fifth or fourth pick, that's, you know, not necessarily doing that if you take another guy. But I think if you're confident that Camara is going to be awesome this year, which I am, I don't know.

I'm not going to drop him. I'm not dropping him to nine. I'm saying that I get it if you want to do that. But I'm simply dropping them from fourth to basically fifth or sixth. It depends on how risk averse you are, I think. But none of us think he's going to get dealt, to be clear. None of us think he's going to get dealt. Famous last words, yes.

Well, yeah, I mean, if you're listening to this on Wednesday morning and Alvin Kamara's in New York Jet and Levi-on-Bell has been released. Also, don't forget that there's a Leonard Fournette aspect actually to this too, because the fact that Leonard Fernett's a free agent, the Saints actually can use that too, because they deal him, they sign Leonard Fernette, at least they can pretend they're going to do that, even if they don't have any interest. So now we have Fournet and Camara being pitted against each other, two of our favorite people. I know. It's a cold world. All right. So that's, those are our feelings.

Wait, real quick. You guys, so you D.K., you're not moving Kamara down. I'm moving in like a spot. And I would not drop him any further than like eighth. But I understand if you are risk averse. Craig, what do you think? I'm not moving in a spot either. Resolute. I love it. Boom. Before we move on, thank you to everyone who emailed us this week. again, that's ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Hit us up. We had a lot of great emails, but again, you can email us your questions. And also please send fun facts.

We're going to hit some fun facts. This week, fun facts, it's September. What the hell is going on? That's crazy. That is bizarre, man. The lack of free season, the lack of free season is completely screwed up my whole, like. And the lack of summer. Like I didn't do anything.

Like circadian rhythm. I don't know, I don't know what month it is. It's weird. Someone's like, Craig, how is your summer? I'd be like, I don't know. It was summer? So true. All right, well, we're going to get, we have one particularly excellent reader email.

We're going to get to at the end of the episode. We're very excited for that. But first, we're going to go through our favorite picks in every round. We know a lot of you are drafting very soon. So we wanted to just go through what our favorite picks are. We're going to be using average draft position for half PPR. This is actually the half PPR average draft position on. Yahoo, but we're going to roll with it.

And obviously, there are a couple issues where average draft position is not perfect. So Clyde Edwards or Layers like technically a second rounder because obviously they're using average draft position from the whole summer and Clyde Edwards-Layer had like a big change. That's a situation where he's the first rounder. But for the most part, average rap positions are really good indicator of where guys are going. And we're just going to go through and pick some dudes. That sound good?

Definitely. All right. Mazel tough. Okay. First round, we're doing 12 team league here, which again, I, personally, I think is silly. Now, I like 12-team leagues, but this is Danny Kelly and I, we have a...

This is one of our other blood feuds, is that Danny thinks 10-team leagues are soft. Please email, ringer fantasy football at gmail.com if you play into 10-team league. Below Danny Keller's gourd. But anyway, we're doing... We won't read your email if you're playing a 10-team league. The first round is to 12,

which I always do a double take on. But, okay, guys, who are some people that if you get in the first round... So, yeah, and we should say that we're doing first rounders, but the first six are a little bit easier to figure out than the final six. So I wanted to talk about Derek Henry. I just think the big dog's getting a little bit underrated, mainly not in like the fantasy

analyst community, but kind of in just like the everyday people community. I feel like people are kind of starting to get down on him. And I don't know, you know, in Derek Henry's first real big year, 2018, his play caller was Matt LaFleur. And Matt LaFleur gave Dionne Lewis 155 carries and 59. catches that year. And Derek Henry was still like the running back 10. Last year, Matt LaFlor was gone. It was

Arthur Smith calling plays. Deion Lewis was still there, but they basically cut his production in half and Derek Henry excelled even more. Now Dionne Lewis is gone. They replaced him with a rookie, Darrington Evans. And now they want to basically turn Derek Henry into Derek Henry plus Dionne Lewis. So I'm not actually

positive anymore that Derek Henry's best year is behind him. I think if they can really work his receiving skills into their offensive game plan, he could still have his best season yet. But how do you know, Darrington Evans isn't going to be Dianne Lewis? He's a rookie, it's COVID,

and them talking up how they want to get Derek Henry involved in the passing game. I mean, doesn't that all lead to Derek Henry having his best receiving year yet? So where were you on Derek Kennedy before? Where would you take him now? Like, if you're... I was on him at like pick eight or nine,

and now I'm like five or six. Over Clyde Edwards-Hillare. I think it's... Those two are five and six, and I was going to ask you guys because I know D.K.'s guy is Clyde Edwards, Lair, how are you ranking Derek Henry, Clyde, and Dalvin Cook? Well, that's a very good question.

So right now I have Edwards Hilaire over Henry. And Dalvin Cook? Yes. I've got Edwards-A-Lair as my RB5. So I'm just really excited about his ability in both the ground game and the passing game. Henry's the, like he said, the worry is his passing game usage. But I will say Evans has been, number one, there's been issues with fumbling, according to beat reporters.

in Titans camp with Evans, and then also he's been battling an injury. Now, I want to counter that with the fact that Peter King was actually talking up Darrington Evans in a recent column and actually said he has... Don't say that he could be the Kamara of the Titans, like he said. That's exactly what he said. No, that's last...

Oh, really? Because now it's everyone wants to say he could be the McCaffrey. That's the new one. I'm sick of everyone being the Kamara of their offense, like Darrell Henderson was. Let's just stop. Camaro's a one of one. The point is, though,

I think I lean toward the idea that Evans is not going to have a huge part of the offense early on, especially. So let's say Derek Henry can catch 35 to 40 passes. Where is he going on your board? I mean, I have him as my RB7 behind Cook and Edward Salar. But, I mean, you make very interesting point. I'm actually, I feel like I'm pretty high on Henry, and I'm still behind you on him a little bit.

But I definitely agree with kind of like your overall points. If you want to take Henry over Cook for the contract stuff, I get it, but I just, I'm more bullish about Cook and Henry when they're both on the field. think that the tight offense is. Even with the injury issues with Cook, you don't care?

Yeah, because I think that the Titans, again, it's like, we think about last year's second half for Derek Henry. Forget that that Derek Henry

is the Amori Cooper of running backs where it's just, he's not consistent and the Titans' offense is not really consistent and I'm not thrilled about him,

but at the same time, if you can get a running back with that much volume in the top eight, that's great, but he's at the bottom end at the top eight for me. Okay.

Dalvin Cook led, I want to say he led the NFL yards on screen plays last year. I know. I guess I just, he's missed 19 games, I think, in his NFL career already. Yeah.

I mean, it's actually an interesting discussion because this is, there's a lot of really difficult decisions right here. I think the fifth pick in a snake draft is really difficult. Yeah. All right. Well, let's turn into the second round. So this is a picks 13 to 24. My favorite pick in the whole second round is just Aaron Jones.

I mean, depending on breaking, depending on what you're looking at, he's going around 20th. Like he's late second round, like early 20s or late 10th. I think he's fantastic because. Again, he was the second running back last year, 19 touchdowns and the whole thing as well as he can have a little less of a job. He's going to be able to score that much. Even if he isn't, that's all baked into this. So, like, he can have a worse season than last year and also still be a really good pick at 20th overall.

I really like Aaron Jones for where he's going. I wouldn't pick him in the first round, but he's a hell of a pick at the borderline third round. Baked in is the tourm de jour of the fantasy community in 2020. Have any of you guys baked? Banana bread. I have enjoyed a lot of other people baking. I have zucchini bread Unreal.

Danny's an expert on other people's baking. I'm a connoisseur. I've been watching a lot of the Great British baking show. Oh my God. It's the best. It's the opposite of Instagram where it's like you get on Instagram and just feel like shit. If you get on the Great British Baking Show, you feel amazing. These are people too.

Most positive show in the world. Oh, it's like the best combo of like people being upset with themselves and the lowest possible stakes. It's, oh my God. And even the judges are like nice. I don't know anything about the show, but. All I know is the gifts that it produces are pretty amazing. Aaron Jones, overproved.

Anyway, who's someone you like in the second round, DK? Yeah, I'm going in on Julio Jones in the second round. I think this is a little bit cheating because he's a first rounder in some ADP, but I don't think he's generally not going in the first round. So he was the wide receiver 3 in 2019, the wide receiver 4 in 2018. And on Yahoo's half-p-R ADPP right now, he is going 14th overall. He's the wide receiver four.

So I think, honestly, he's a lock solid bet for 150 targets. You know, there's a lot of available volume up for grabs in the Falcons offense. I don't know. It's just looking really good. Like, he's like as safe of a guy that you can pick in the first two rounds, in my opinion. Like, he's up there with like Devante Adams is like, he's going to, he has a potential to lead the NFL on targets. There's something to be said for reliability in a volatile year. Yeah, everyone hates on him because of the touchdown thing, which I get.

But touchdown's just such a variant. Like, there's so much variance in that stat that it's not something that really scares me away. Craig, who do you like in the second round? So I'm going to I'm going to call out to all my eight team leaguers and 10 team leaguers for this pick. Because I know you guys- Danny Kelly does not respect. Hey, man, it's hard. Having 12 friends is hard sometimes for people.

I mean, think about your lunch table in high school. 12 people at that table. It's a big table. Not everybody had 12 people at that lunch table. Yeah, then they're like the last three guys And like if you're in a 12 team The last three guys are just like, nah Yeah, you start reaching out to like cousins

Yeah, like anybody available That's the thing. If you have an eight team league, the roster's weaker or like the roster's stronger But the group chat is way better. Yeah, totally. I mean, unless you're one of those rare groups Who's got like 12 really solid.

I have a let we have like 10-11 really solid And we kind of had to like, you know, add one. Because like having friends is hard. Like not for me, but for other people. It's hard. Exactly. So anyway, I'm going with Travis Kelsey. He's the tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs.

So here it is. It's basically based on the idea that in an 18-team league and a 10-team league, it means that more good players are available later in the draft because everyone is drafting sooner. So if you know what you're doing in your league and you hopefully listen to this podcast and you have a good idea of how to draft later on in later rounds, I think it makes sense to spend earlier picks on quarterbacks and tight-ends

because you can still patch the rest of your roster up with good players later on. So I think taking a guy like Travis Kelsey, especially in an 8-team league or maybe a 10-team league, makes a lot of sense. The guy's been the tight-in won three of the last four years, and the year he was and he was the tight-end too. He's just as solid as you can get.

He's so much better than every other tight-end, and I think it makes sense. I agree. The thinner of the league, the better you want to chase that end. The thinner the league makes sense to get, like, Lamar and Travis Kelsey early. All right. We're going to the third round.

So again, 12 teams because Dika. We're going to 25th pick to 36. Who are guys that you like in this range? Dka. My guy in this range is Adam Thielen of the Vikings. He is another. It's like the Julio thing, actually. He's guaranteed like 150 targets in 2020.

No Stefan Diggs in that offense. He's the clear cut number one. He had 153 targets in 2018, 146 targets, 2017. Obviously, he had some injury issues last year that cut into his production. but I think people are kind of forgetting how good he is of a route runner, how good he is at the catch point. And yeah, I think he's just going to go off. I think he's an awesome value in round three. So he's easily my favorite here.

Well, not easily because there's actually, this is a good area. Yeah, for me, it's literally any wide receiver except Cooper Cup. And I think Cooper Cup because he's spraying his ankle and I just also don't like him. And also I think Tyler Higby is going to take or the tight ends are going to take a lot of his. I don't like him on any level. What do you do to you? But I'm literally any receiver in this range. That's, for me, that's Mike Evans,

Juja Smith-Schuster, O'Dell, Amar Cooper, AJ Brown, like literally any of them, but... This is the best area for receivers. Craig,

who do you specifically like in this range? Yeah, it's one of those receivers. It's Alan Robinson. Alan Robinson is the opposite of DeAndre Hopkins this year. DeAndre's going 13th overall, and Alan Robinson's going 28th,

and that's backwards to me. It's all about target competition and Robinson is going to see less than he did last year, and DeAndre Hopkins is going to see more. I don't even care if Nick Fultzer-Tribisky starts. Robinson is still a great pick

at the position that he's going at. I mean, the guy saw four more targets than DeAndre Hopkins last year, and now DeAndre Hopkins is on the Cardinals. And Robinson only scored 12 less fantasy points than Hopkins last year. You're basically drafting what everyone else

thinks is DeAnder Hopkins as Alan Robinson at pick 28. I love him. Is Robinson the most underrated player in the NFL? He might be. He legitimately might be. That's a really good one. Because if he had, again, his quarterbacks his whole life have been

Blake Bortles, Mitchell Zubisky. and now he's hoping to get Nick Foles. He had 12 less fantasy points than DeAndre Hopkins, and DeAndre Hopkins is going 15 spots ahead of him. That's a good way. This is a good quote. Who is the most underrated player in the NFL?

Well, in fantasy, it's Alan Robinson. Yeah, Alan Robbins. That's a good one. Okay. Fourth round, pick 37 to 48. Who do you guys like in his range? Actually, this is another guy that probably could be in the discussion. I don't think he's as underrated as Robinson,

but Tyler Lockett of the Seahawks. We've been a fan of him on this podcast. as we said before, he was the wide receiver five before he got hurt last year in week 10. So through 10 weeks, he was the wide receiver five. And right now you can get him in the fourth round. So I think the offense for the Seahawks is pretty

damn dependable. There's just like a really high floor for that offense passing game. And I think Tyler Lockett is going to be either, if he's not number one, he's 1B with D.K. Metcalfe. And I think he's going to be the number one option in that offense. So, yeah, love Lockett, very talented player. he's going to get to play in the slot.

He scores a lot of touchdowns in this offense because the CX are so efficient. Yeah, everything to like about him. Craig, what about you? Who are you taking this round? I like James Connor a lot, running back on the Steelers. He's one of the final three-down running backs

available to grab pretty much. I know his stock's going up. He's not really a secret anymore, but I still think people look at him too much through an injury lens without doing the same for guys like Dalvin Cook, we talked about earlier.

Connor's a top 10 back when healthy. I don't know. I mean, he's probably just same amount of risk as any other guy to get hurt. So the Steelers fan took a Steeler and the Seahawks fan took a Seahawk. Did I get that right? And then Hyfitz once again just couched his answer with literally any other receiver that falls.

I'm zooming out here because here's my point. You can get a running back in the first round and running back in the second round. I basically don't care who you get. And then if you hit receiver receiver in the third, fourth round and you get essentially any combination of you can get Mike Evans, Kenny Galladay, Adam Thielin, Alan Robinson. So you're basically recommending people. people auto draft the first four rounds. Did you not get the memo that we were picking our favorite players in each round? Well, here's it.

So my, well, my favorite two in this round, my favorite's Tyler Lockett. But the thing is, my broader point is, it's amazing how many good receivers are left in the third, fourth, fifth round. So if you're going to go get pizza during your draft, do it in the first four rounds and you'll be fun. I just looked ahead in this dock and guess what Danny's going to do in the fifth round, guys. Are you kidding? You put literally any one receiver again?

Well, my, all my real answer is that I would. You're literally telling people to auto draft. Oh, if you want to get, look, first, all right. So my real answer here is two things. One, you're going to forget this. One, it's Calvin Ridley is the person I really want here around this range. Because if you can get Calvin Ridley around the 40th or so picked, that's an amazing value. The real answer, though, is the guys specifically want here.

Ridley, Lockett, and Robert Woods, who I think it's, you have Craig in the fifth round. I think that's cheating. Because I don't think Robert Woods is really going to be available in the 50s unless you're lucky. I would take Robert Woods here. But I left him for you. so you could pretend that he's available at 55. And he won't be. You need to take him now.

So I was like, you know what? I'm not going to make up someone. I'm going to just say all the receivers left are good. But the answer here is Robert Woods in 45 is perfect, just as Lockett or Calvin Ridley is. So there, sorry to blow up your spot. I was just following the rubric of the show. Sorry.

Oh, rule follower, Craig. Robert Woods right now has ADP is 58th and half PVR. On Yahoo, he's 64th. Fan tracks, he's 47. So there's, there's some discrepancy discrepancies on the sites and stuff. So he's like at the four or five turn. Yeah, exactly.

Yes. Robert, I'm perfectly happy taking. So, yeah, so round five, again, this is where the whole thing gets squishy. It really does depend on the site you're using. This is where your draft actually starts mattering because honestly, your first four rounds, everyone's good.

Let's be honest. All right. So Bobby Trees. Yeah. And again, I'm just sorry to go through. But the other person I think specific, again, I'm happy with Bobby Trees, Terry McLaurin, Keenan Allen.

But McLaurin is the guy I want. We're talking to 49 to 60. McLaurin is the guy there that I think. again, huge ranking discrepancy. He's 30s in the mid-30s on Yahoo, was like mid-60s or in 50s in ESPN. It's a pretty big difference. But McLoran's the guy,

it's clearly number one guy on an offense that there's a lot of bias because your first instinct is, wow, Washington sucks. That's why he's ranked so low. That's why he's going to fall. But first of all, they ran like 900, 800 and change plays. They're going to run 100 more plays this year

just by virtue of being competent. So there's a bump that. And then also just he's the number one receiver. He's the second season. All the, every underlying thing stacks on top of each other to suggest he will be better than last year, but people are so obsessed with how bad Washington

as no one wants him. Things are really good better than in the 50s. I really like McLaurin. I almost put McLaren. And actually, technically, I do have McLaurin ranked slightly higher than DJ Chark, who I went with. And I think maybe one of the reasons I bumped him up

is what we talked about earlier in the pod is I think that the Jags are just going to be so pass-heavy. I think there's going to be a lot of volume in that passing game. I'm actually a Minchu believer. and I think that their connection was really strong. DJ Shark showed the ability to do a back shoulder catch so well. Minshu was definitely willing to pass it to him on those.

He's got such a good, like his skill set is so well-rounded. He's like a 4-3 guy. He's got size. He's got body control. And yeah, I just think Shark is going to continue to ascend in his career. And so I gave the slight nod to Shark. Is it Shark or Shark, by the way? I think Shark and then our colleague Jonathan Charks, it's Sharks.

But this is Chark with a C.H. Yeah. Anyways, I think these guys, both McLaurin and Chark are very close to me and I love both of them in this area. All right, let's keep rolling. Craig, did you want to sit some about Bobby Trees? You want to make fun of me again? No, Robert Woods is just Amari Cooper with a worst name. So. With the worst name.

I like it. Well, maybe just if they called them Bobby Trees, Bobby Trees. is better name than Mara Cooper. All right. Before we keep rolling here, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show is proud to be presented by Fandul Fantasy. Sports are finally back. Playoff basketball, playoff hockey, baseball, golf, cornhole, whatever.

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Fandul, more ways to win. Sunday games are like snacks, the more the better. So don't miss a single one with NFL Sunday Ticket.TV. DK, don't miss a single cassidia. Oh, you know I won't. You know what else is really good?

jalapeno poppers. Okay. I'm not a big fan of those, but all right. What? I don't like cream cheese in like a really hardcore savour resetting like that.

Cream cheese and I used to be great friends and cream cheese and I are no longer friends. I don't like cream cheese on sushi. That's a thing. I don't really like that. I don't either, actually. Yeah. Well, Craig knows what he wants. And you know what you want football. And not just a game or two. All of them.

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That is promo code The Ringer. I don't know. With jalapeno Poppers, it's like, I think I like, like, they're usually wrapped in bacon, right? Or there's bacon in them? I don't know. Honestly, I had never had a Halapeno Popper to college. And I was so confused. I didn't want to ask a question because I was like, is this like a normal food?

My only exposure to Poppers was that it's always Sunny Philadelphia episode where Mack takes the Poppers and the wedding dress, those are super different things. So I was really confused. The poppers that I have had are jalapenos with cream cheese and then it's like fried. Yeah. I have the fried ones. I know the ones that are wrapped in bacon and those are good. I just think I have this thing where like if it's too much sauce in my bite, I like ratio.

I'm a big ratio guy and like my bites. I don't like when people over dip their salsa or over dip their guacamole. And it's like the chip basically disintegrates within the guacamole. I think you need to have like a third of the chip is. with sauce. I think the jalapeno popper, it's way too cream cheese heavy. Yeah. Sometimes the cream cheese is like molten lava too. It's literally dangerous. It's just filled your whole mouth, cream

cheese. I don't want to be honest. Even as you're discussing this, I still don't know what a popper is. And I actually, even the drug, I actually don't know what popper the drug is. All the uses of poppers, I never know what anyone means. I don't know what they are. What's because you pop it in your mouth? You pop a jalapeno in your mouth. Yeah, but I don't know what the food is. You tell me it's cream cheese? Oh, it's a jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese.

And you like grill it or some shit. And then you fry it. It's like deep fried with batter. Yeah, it's a jalapeno filled with like cream cheese. So it just was like, I don't know, it's in here. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. You've never even never even. It'd probably be better to be called. I stay away. It's like a pizza roll, but a

but there's jalapeno and cream cheese. Yeah, a Totino's pizza roll, but it's a jalapeno. You just cut the, you shave the top off the jalapeno and you like inject cream cheese and then like grill it. It's honest and gross. I feel like I'm Jack Harlow. I'm literally like, what's popper? It's going to be the remix. Popper. Okay, let's, for the love of God, let's keep going here. I think I grew up

beard during the last time we were talking about fantasy football. Okay, start at round six. This is 61 to 72 overall. Who's someone you like in this range, D.K.? This is Cam Acres range for me. I think he's, like we talked about it on the last pod. Go listen to that pod, by the way. The Bold Takes pod. I think that was really fun. It's also on Daily Sports. Check out Spotify Daily Sports for Tuesday, September 1st, and you'll hear us. Do that. No, like, do that right now. It's great. Shout out Daily Sports. Definitely. Acres is my guy, though.

So Gurley, he's vacating 223 carries in this offense. He still managed 12 touchdowns in that offense. I think Acres has a chance to get a lot of opportunities inside the five-yard line. That's been kind of the M-O for Gurley and the Rams running backs over the last three seasons. I think he's also going to be a factor in the passing game. You know, if you look at 2018 and 2017, Gurley got 81 targets, 87 targets in those two seasons, and it dropped off to 49 last year. So I think Acres has a chance to be much more effective in the passing game,

open that part of the Ram's offense back up for him. And if he is that effective in the passing game, man, he's going to score a lot of fantasy points. So I'm just really excited about what Aker's can do in this offense. I like Ronald Jones here, but would you rather have Aker's or Ronald Jones? Ronald Jones is running back for the bucks and Kishon Vaughn was kind of the guy with him. But Kishon Vaughn missed a lot of practice, not doing kick return duty. So do you like Rojo or Kamakers? Yeah, I like Acres more

Do we know like if McVeigh Like is he like a I only want to use one back For like every down cut type of guy Or so he's like well we could use Henderson for passing Malcolm Brown in the red zone Cam Acres here and there like do we know I think it's more of the latter But they only use Gurley for like a lot

Because he was really good Yeah he also inherited him And he was a first round pick But I imagine Gurley I don't know what Gurley prefers I imagine McVe prefers versatility with the idea being you don't want anyone who's predictable. You're not tipping your hand.

Yeah, you want someone who's pretty good at receiving and running. And if he have multiple people can do that, sure, but he might not. Acre seems to have a crazy high ceiling. Yeah, I think that he wants a threshold of like better than competent on both of those things. And DK, wasn't he basically like on par with Jonathan Taylor at like the combine, like in all categories? Wasn't he just his, his 10-yard split? We talked about this. His 10-yard split was out of this world.

Well, no, it's Jonathan Taylor the fastest 40-yard dash of any running back, but Cam Acres' 10-yard split was faster. And dumb question, why isn't that more important than the 40? Who cares about the 40-yard dash?

Well, I guess if you're talking, it depends on what you want. Like, if you want to break away home-run hitter, that's Jonathan Taylor. But the point is, Acres has incredible explosiveness in the short area, and that's really,

really important for running backs. And he's really good. They picked him in the second round. He was their first pick, you guys. Yeah, that's a good point. Also, can we talk about, so we had a listener email us about how we've mentioned that Cam Acres has been nowhere to be seen. We haven't seen Hard Knocks yet, but Cam Acres is nowhere to be seen on Hard Knocks. And somebody said last year, Josh Jacobs was nowhere to be seen for the Raiders. And he had a great year. It's a very good point. That's a very good point. Who sent that email in? His name is Dan Capri. Oh, a Dan, no less. Wow, no one of we got such a good email. I am going to shout out Dan and he's right because it occurs to me. We're wrong. The smart teams will keep their good players away from Hard Knock. So really, that's why Robert Woods has not been featured, because Robert Woods is good, and the good players aren't allowed to go on the camera. So there you go. Dan, you're right. Okay. Craig, is there a sixth rounder you like?

My six-round guy is just Ty Why Hilton. The dudes missed three games in the last four years before last year. He gets a ton of targets. Philip Rivers is a competent quarterback. He's a veteran who knows what he's doing, and he's going to be on a good offense. Philip Rivers is going to get protected this year. He's going really late, Ty White Hilton. That's a good offensive line. That's going to give him time to go deep? It's not a ton of dynamic playmakers on the Colts really that are established. Established ones for sure, yeah. I like Ronald Jones in this round. I think he's the guy in Tampa Bay. Round seven, pick 73 to 84. Who you guys targeting here? This to me is like receiver tier. This is like

back to receivers with a little blip of a running back thing in round six. Michael Gallup stands out to me in this area. He was sixth in receiving yards per game last year, which just kind of flies under the radar. Dallas vacated a lot of targets with Cobb and Witten leaving. And yeah, he's, I guess, technically, like, the number two behind Amari Cooper, but in all honesty, like, he could end up being, like, the go-to guy in this offense.

He plays the X spot. He, you know, runs on the outside. He's a really good route runner, really good at the catch point. Super underrated player. And, I mean, honestly, if Amari went down, too, he would be top 12, top 15 guy, potentially. Yeah.

What do you think? 100%. My guy's Will Fuller on the Texans. Brandon Cooks is also on the Texans. I think people think maybe he could be the lead. Well, the athletic reported that Brandon Cooks is having his reps carefully managed throughout August and could be eased into the team's offensive game plan. That's music to Will Fuller rosterers' ears. Let me just give you a quick little stat here about Will Fuller.

In the last two seasons, DeAndre Hopkins scored more than 20 fantasy points on about 30% of his games. Will Fuller scored more than 20 fantasy points and about 23% of his games. with Hopkins there. Now Hopkins is gone. Will Fuller is going to be amazing. My theory on this round with our three guys is that I think you could actually just have these three receivers be your starting three wide receivers on a fantasy team and you'd be fine. I love that. And that's why these guys in salary cap leagues are just unbelievable values. And Hyfitz, who's your guy? I love Marquis Brown in Baltimore. I just, Marquis Brown to me is, again, he's fast, he's young. The Ravens are trying to throw deep more. There's a lot of fancy numbers you could point at to why he's going to be really good. But what matters is they're the best offense. in the league. They're trying to throw to more. He's the number one pick. And like, what else do you need? To me, he's one of the most obvious guys that outside the top 20, that could be top

eight next year. I mean, he's fantastic. Him and Fuller. I love the combo. And Gallop's really good, too. All right, round eight, which to me, and to be clear, we're through seven rounds. That's through pick, 84. So we're cheating a little bit because Fuller and them, I think, have gotten a lot more buzz. So really, through 80, this is where I stopped getting as excited about people. The first 80 pick, there's so many good players. and really 70 to 80 I actually almost like more than 60 to 70

in a weird way but now we're, to me there's a mental difference of like the guys going forward I'm less excited about. Do you guys feel that way? Yeah. I don't.

I'm actually pretty excited about this area. Okay. All right. Well, tell us who you're excited about. 85 to 96. Marvin Jones to me stands out in this spot. Through 14 weeks last year, almost the entire season.

He was wide receiver 15. And you can get him in like the 7. 30th round. He's a little bit older. Maybe that's like working against him a little bit. People don't believe in the Lions' offense for whatever reason. But I do.

I think Matthew Stafford's going to have a big year. I like Darrell Beville as a play caller. Marvin Jones and Goladay are the two guys downfield. I just think he's a really good player. He would actually be on the list of most underrated players, I think, too. I don't think he's as underrated as Alan Robinson or Tyler Lockett. But I think people kind of forget about him. Oh, the other thing I was going to mention, he was a wide receiver for 15 through 14 weeks.

That was ahead of Julio. Damn. Marvin Jones over Julio, bold predictions. But yeah, so he's a guy that I really like in this round. Speaking of Julio, this round is where I'm grabbing Matt Ryan if he's still on the board, or Tom Brady, if they're still on the board. This is where I'm starting to think about taking a quarterback. Depends on your league where the run starts, but this is where I'd want one. This round is where I'm grabbing J.K. Dobbins on the Ravens.

I mean, the Ravens are the best running team of all time, and the starting running back is going to be 31 this year. And J.K. Dobbins is maybe the best running back college football last year. And John Harbaugh loves him. Yeah, I saw this tweet today from Jameson Henley. John Harbaugh said rookie running back, J.K. Dobbins, will probably have a, quote,

significant role this season. He raved about Dobbins confidence and coachability. There's a bunch of hype happening literally, like, as we speak about Dobbins. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Chew-choo. It might blast through my podcast studio at home, the hype train.

Wow. I am so excited about Dobbins. He was one of my favorite running backs in college. And yeah. Round nine. Choo, baby. Round nine, 97th to 108. Which this is why I hate the 12th.

Like, the numbers are so random. I can't do that kind of. I don't know for sure that I got these right. Just for the record. Yeah. Odd numbers. I don't really get what's going on. I did it all in my head and I'm probably wrong.

No, you're right. Let's just keep. Okay, good. Dude, 12 times 9. I'm not a scientist. Don't ask me to do that. Anyways, who do you like around the hundredth spot? That's what we're talking about.

Yeah, so you mentioned that this is where the range-ish, where you start talking about quarterbacks. I really like Stafford in this spot. Last season, he was on pace for 38 touchdowns. He was on pace for a QB6 finish before he stopped. Before he was, his season was cut short with a back injury after eight games. So I just think they're going to have a lot of volume. They're going to be playing from behind.

they're going to have, potentially have some shootouts. Matt Stafford, veteran guy, you know, never been afraid to sling it around the, around the yard, has some good receivers. I just like everything about this, honestly. If he can stay healthy, I think he's going to be a QB1. If there's another, if Stafford's gone at this point, who do you want? You know, I think the next probably would be Ben Rothesberger.

I think, again, he's coming off injury. What about your boy Joe Burrow or Daniel Jones? I mean, I think you can wait a little bit and get those guys a little bit later in the 120s. But if you wanted to, it's not, I'm not going to be yelling at you if you want to reach out a little bit here on a quarterback that you really believe in. Burroughs my guy. Jared Goff, I also think he's going to have a good year. Okay.

If he plays like he chips, I'm worried. So, Craig, if you're not taking quarterback, who are you taking? I like Deontay Johnson, the receiver and the Steelers here. I mean, this is as late as you can get for a guy who could potentially have a blowup season. He really does have the potential to be the 2017 or maybe even 2018 Juju Smith-Schuster this year for Pittsburgh. monitor's health. Yeah, because he's missed some practices, so that could be a factor. But he's also dropped because of that.

So if he ends up being healthy, he might be even a better value. I'm not taking, if I'm not taking quarterback here right around this spot, around 100, 100, 10, this is where I'm reaching for a tight end. I like Hayden Hirsch this year. I think he's going to be fantastic. I mean, I've said this ad nauseum, but once again, just awesome hooper. Number one tight end through 10 weeks. And he once dunked on Craig in high school basketball.

It's a crazy story. but it was baseball and he didn't dunk on me. You change the story every time. It was never basketball. The point is that- I struck him out many times. Haydenhurst is better than Austin Hooper and I really like Hayden Hurst this year.

But if not tight end, Craig, if you don't want to pick someone who was mean to you in middle school or whatever, high school, didn't dunk on you, who was a titan you're looking at it around this range? As far as I know, Noah Fant has not been mean to me. So I like him this year for that reason alone.

No, it's just, Fant is a really talented athletic late round second year tight end that's often when tight ends break out he led all tight end rookies last year in targets catches and yards with three different quarterbacks. Noa Fant could really potentially end up being the number one option on his team

especially in the red zone so I like Nofant If he becomes really good the amount of fantasy puns are going to be overwhelming Yeah it's going to be like a flood It's biblical All right let's keep rolling here let's get to like pick 120s or so early 1 30s This is basically handcuff running back range

and like some real we're in dart throw territory this is officially there are no reaches this is like take who you want so dig who do you want around this range i'm interested in zach moss the rookie running back for the bills um i don't there's no guarantee that singletary is going to dominate touches in this backfield i don't think uh moss very good player i like him a lot he's awesome tackle breaker uh he's got more size than singletary and he's also actually a pretty good pass catcher so i'm not saying it's going to happen but in this range you're taking handcuffs or guys that have standalone value, like some standalone value. I think Moss has standalone value,

but he could end up just being the straight starter for that team. While we're on handcuffs, other guys in this range that I would think about grabbing, Boston Scott and Philadelphia, he's been going up because Miles Sanders is week to week. So he's right around the 120s, 1.30s is probably where you have to grab him. He's just Darren Sprouls. He was compared to Darren Sproes before he played for the Saints and before, not before Darren Sproes played for the Saints, but before Boston Scott went to New Orleans, he was comp to Aaron Sproles.

And now he's in Philadelphia, the other spot Darren Sproles played. and he could just be Darren Sproles and if you're in a PPR league and you get Darren Sproles light in like the 120s, 10030s, I think it's awesome. Did I tell you guys about how we, Craig,

I don't know if you were there, but Danny and I met Darren Sprouls at the Combine. Oh, nice. And he got, he and a couple of the people that were there made fun of me because I didn't know

of the sandwich shop in Seattle that he loves. Yeah, he gave you a layup, like you're like from Seattle and usually like, oh, nice, where do you live? But you don't know anything about the city. and we were going to be best friends,

but then I didn't know about this burrito place that he absolutely loved. He was a set. You didn't know. He was like, it'd be funny if like, he was like, what's your favorite parts of Seattle?

And you were just like, the Mariners Stadium. What? It was the opposite. It's usually the person from the place is like, here's a specific thing. And the person has the question's like, oh,

no, I'm in deeper than I wanted to do here. Yeah, he was the opposite. Darren's, like, you know, this famous place? I love it. Anyway.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. The Boston Scott's good at football. DK. is there another handcuffed in like the 120s, 130s range where you think it's a high upside backup running back you would want? I got one.

I think it's Tony Pollard. I was reading the doc. I couldn't find anything. Well, I have Tony Pollard in the next round. This is my only explanation for Tony Pollard. If Zeeke gets hurt, you win your league. There you go. I think you should draft him, especially if you don't have Zique on your team.

God, I hate, Pollard is so good. I seriously hate it when, like, really good players go to teams with. like clear-cut hierarchies. That's how I feel behind Tyrod Taylor and Herbert on the roster. Yeah, I mean, I just feel for you on that. It's, it sucks. It sucks.

It sucks. Round 12. D.K. Round 12. So I got Hawkinson in this area. Everything you said about Fant, I think pretty much applies to Hawkinson. He's been getting incredible hype in, in Lions camp. So who's, who you got more, Hawkinson or Noah Fant?

Let me see. I want to actually pull up my rankings here. Who was the guy? Noah Fant was on, was he the guy from Iowa? Iowa who also played with another tight end. T.J. Hawkinson and Fant were on the same team. Oh, it was both of them. Okay.

They both played in Iowa's famous because, like, they put out Dallas Clark and they put out George Kittle and they have like a history of great tight ends, but those guys don't do anything in college. Like, they just block. So it's like tied in university, but together their numbers were like. So can anybody separate Fant Hockinson? Like, is there any reason why anyone likes one over the other? Or is it just like, yeah, they're both young and have potential?

Fan is more explosive as a pass catcher. He's more of like a move tight end, like a guy that will run routes. Hawkinson is like a Y tie. He's exactly like Kittle. Oh, and Kelsi's more like, or in Fant's more like Kelsey? Exactly. So Kittal or Hawkinson, I should say, is going to be asked to block. He's a very good blocker.

I have Hawkinson actually ranked a little bit higher. And maybe it's just because, I don't know, like I just think he's overall a better player, like a better all-around player. But I will say Fant, very explosive, good pass catcher. It's going to be interesting to see how the targets get split up in Denver, though. I think I'd just hire on the Lions offense just because I trust Stafford more at this point. I think Locke has very good potential, but he hasn't really shown it in NFL yet. Also, one thing about Fant and Locke is fans' numbers were down with Locke and better with the other two quarterbacks. I don't know if that matters.

Yeah, I don't know if maybe, like, yeah, that's something to kind of keep in mind is like there's more of an established quarterback situation in Detroit. And that's why I lean Hawkinson, but I like both of them. The larger point is that Fant Hockinson, there's a lot of high upside tight ends are available after 110 or so, 100 that we like better. Maybe to just outright be better than Jared Cook, Hunter Henry,

guys that you can get 30 rounds later. It might finish a lot better. You hear that, folks, 30 rounds later? Did I say 30? I mean 30 picks. Did I say 30 rounds? Yes, 30 rounds. Oh my God.

Well, you know what? Yeah, it's what it feels like. Deep Dynasty. If you have 40 friends and you wanted to do a league. Sure. Well, not all of us have 40 friends like you, Craig.

You're just spitting friends at the wazoo. Anyway, other people, I like around this round. I forgot to mention Chase Edmonds with the other handcuffs, but Kenyon Drake, again, we don't know. Walking Boat. He says he's fine, but Chase Edmonds, backup running back for Cardinals, he's really good. He had three touchdowns last year in relief of David Johnson.

Great late round pick. And then a couple other high upside receivers, James and Crowder, who maybe isn't really going to be available around this. But number one receiver for the New York Jets, everyone. Jameson Crowder, just going after pick under. just unreal. I want to talk about Crowder for a second. I know that we're trying to get, you know,

kind of lightning round, but he is maybe one of the best picks, I feel like in this entire draft, just because he has such a high floor. So going back to last year, he had 17 targets in week one, 14 catches 99 yards. He was the wide receiver 12.

Donald missed the next four weeks with mono, and Crowder fell off the map. But week six on, he was the wide receiver 15 in PBR. So almost a wide receiver one, high-end wide receiver two. And you can get that guy in like the seventh or eighth, maybe even later,

ninth-tenth round if people aren't paying attention. Especially this year where, you know, the COVID off season has been shortened. Chemistry matters. Crowder has a good connection with Sam Darnold. And most importantly, there's literally no one else in that freaking passing game right now.

Even Herndon got hurt today. We don't know the severity of Herndon's injury at this point. Hopefully he's going to make, you know, make a quick recovery and everything. It doesn't sound like he's going to miss much time, but at the end of the day, it's Herndon and Crowder because

Rashad Perryman's been hurt, and Denzo Mims is basically not really practiced in camp. So anyways, long story short, love Crowder. Yeah, a lot of these guys are talking about as late-round gems at 1.30. It's basically this person, if they get hurt, then this person we're talking about would be very valuable.

Or we have an assumption about how this offense will work, but if we're wrong, this person will benefit. James and Crowder just is the number. number one receiver on the Jets. And it's just available because people think the Jets suck and he's not very famous. Like that's, you know, that's just it. So anyway, all right. We're 140s or so.

This is like we're getting like the last picture you got before defense. And again, rankings here are just out the window. It's like at this point, you just take the people you want. Who are some like last toward the end of your drafts guys you want and to bench stashes? You think of a lot of upside. I'm going with Anthony Miller, the Bears. And he's another guy that kind of came on strong at the end of this. season showed some of his potential he was a low-end wide receiver three from week 10 on and half

ppr so um you know he's a potential like wide receiver three slash flex play you can get in your second to last round so i think that's pretty good value and and he started um really showing out like i said in the end of the year and hopefully he'll kind of have a breakout season this season for the bears but we don't really know exactly what the quarterback situation is yet as of tuesday we don't know who the starter for the bears is so actually by the way who do you guys think it's going to be. It better be fucking Nick Foles. What are we doing? Yeah.

This, yeah, this is like The Bachelor. I'm actually like getting, I'm confused as to why it's not him yet. Like, what's going on? Are they trying to motivate Chubisky? I really don't know. The Bears not signing Cam Newton looks funnier and funnier by the day.

Yeah, and Newton's getting a like rave review. The Patriots paid Cam Newton a million and a half dollars. And if they win, like basically if they win the Super Bowl. Cam Newton gets $8 million. The Bears gave up a draft pick to pay Nick Full $17 million. Honestly, it is the most under-discussed thing of the entire off season.

The Bears passing Cam Newton will go down if the Patriots make the playoffs the Cam and he's good as like the worst move the Bears made since Trubisky. They didn't even get rid of Trubisky right. Anyway, holy cow. Anyone else you guys want to shout out? Yeah, quick shout out. Preston Williams, receiver on the Dolphins. he's going to be this year's Devante Parker.

I'd take him four rounds earlier. Parker's hurt now, right, too. Yeah. Take Preston Williams, thank us later. All right, let's get in some reader mail. Yeah, our listener email. Yeah, again, ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Thank you to everyone setting stuff.

Send in fantasy questions. Fun facts. Make sure they're fun. Someone sent in that Leonard Fournett was 85% of team snaps. We appreciate the email, but it made me sad. I want facts about like insects and like weird weather patterns, you know? Did you know that there is a spider called Darwin's spider that can spew 25 meters of web? This thing's the size of like a dime.

That's 75 feet for 25. That's Danicill. That's a math guy. What is the native land of that spider? Far away. Probably Afghanistan. But it spews it over a river. If it's scary, it's in Australia.

It's the strongest natural fiber in the world. Australia is going to walk around like a tennis racket. Dude. Swat things. Darwin Spider. Anyway, let's get into Reader Mail. We have an anonymous email here. Greetings.

Danny, Danny, and Craig. Longtime listener, first time caller. This is a great email. I'm so excited for this. I'm in a league that has been going for a decade with the same group of people. I'm the only woman in the league and I'm as knowledgeable and dedicated to football fan as any of the other guys. She then lists many of her credentials, which is not necessary, though it is

impressive, but unnecessary because nobody asks men if they are qualified to play in a fantasy football league. It's embarrassing that anyone thinks anyone needs to be qualified to play in a fantasy football league. Oh, it gets worse. All the guys, this is her now. All the guys in the league are some of my best friends except for one particular ass hat. This guy is the sole card carrying misogynist in the league. And wouldn't you know it, he is the one dude that I lose to every single year.

All caps. Almost 20 losses to the singular dickhead. Singular dickhead. If you think he's gracious about his ridiculous winning, record against me, you would be wrong. He makes a big stink about it every year, trashes me in the chat saying stuff like, I hope you're better at making sandwiches than you are at fantasy. What the fuck? Which aside from being rude, isn't even original, doubly offensive to my sensibilities. And of course, I can't say anything about it because he

beats me every year. And then she goes on to mention all of her wins and playoffs and stuff, which is impressive. But again, even if you suck at fantasy football, should not misogy. Not okay, no matter what your skill level is. Right. She goes on, oh, did I mention that he came in dead last in 2019? And two of his total five wins were against me. And yet he still spent the whole week talking about how girls shouldn't play fantasy if they can't hang. I don't know if he actually believes any of the shit he says.

You might just be trolling me, which is why I don't bite back, but it still chaps my ass. Also, I'm sorry for my language. I'm from Philly and I literally cannot help myself go birds. She had me till the end. I hate the birds. A couple important points there. First of all, thank you for sending this email. I will admit, I felt naive as a dude.

I can't believe there are adult men telling women to make sandwiches. So I felt jarred in a good way. So some pro tips. Don't be an asshole. And if you're telling women to make sandwiches in the year 2020, you're an asshole. More importantly, because most people listening don't do that. If you see someone doing that, stop them, especially if they're your friend. If you're letting your friend be an asshole, you're aiding and abetting assholery.

Don't be a bystander. It's weak sauce and Dumbledore not be proud of you. And then three, a little more subtle, but don't make women list their credentials. Like if a woman is a fantasy football fan, you don't have to be like, well, you know, like, no one ever asked a dude what your history of being a sports fan. Just talk football. Like, oh my God. Anyway, this made me feel very sad.

I'm 100% invested in our loyal listener winning this league. Well, not just, first of all, I just want her to beat this guy and then also winning this league. If you have questions, email us every single week and we'll give you our advice. Who knows if it'll be that good. But we will do everything in our power to help you beat this ass hat. Yeah. So continue with your email. She said,

so guys, I need you to help me annihilate this dude. I need to beat him so bad that I erased nine years of embarrassment. I need to lose so badly that he can't ever make his lame-ass sandwich jokes ever the fuck again. Yeah, no, that's, can we just say,

man, it sucks that she's lost to him every year for nine years. I think she said in the email, I don't know if she was like, oh and 18 again. Tim in nine years. Yeah, oh, and 18. Unbelievable.

How does that happen? So you know what that means? You know what that means? We're due for some positive regression here. That's what's going to go on. Seriously. This is the year of positive regression. Anonymous, we are very excited to help you.

So her predicament is she gets to keep one of the following players in her league. It's Robert Woods, our beloved Bobby Trees, at a third round keeper cost. Chris Carson, Seahawks running back at a second round, keeper cost. Or Austin Hooper, tight end for the Browns now, Craig's nemesis for a 10th round keeper price. We're nobody.

What do you guys think? We all came to a consensus on this for our, for our listener. We think you keep no one and you just draft well. Yeah, this is sad. It's about value, right? Like it's a little early, I think Bobby Trees,

as much as we love him, it's a little early to use the third rounder. Chris Carson, I think it's definitely too early to use the second rounder. And Hooper is not someone I'm like really high on this year, so I probably wouldn't keep him either. also can we talk about how she signed the email so please the dany's and crag i beg you help me cremate this man yeah that's you know this she's been listening to this pod for a long time

cremate's a deep that was like our that was that is a deep dancy football cut who said did i say that you said cremate and i was so uncomfortable that we would use the term cremate i still don't like saying it i still i still don't really want to use that term in any other context oh it's sorry She's been listening to a long time. She's using the word cremate. So officially, our recommendation is to not keep any of those people. Yeah, and then to use our rankings or to draft your team. And you'll get better values than I think any of the people you could keep here.

But also, don't be the silent person in the group chat. Fuck that guy. Roast his ass. And also, yeah, roast his ass. Tell him make his own goddamn sandwich. What's his, what's his main ass deal? I bet you he's like the 11th or the 12th friend. They're like, I guess we can invite him.

Yeah. We talked about that earlier. This isn't the Seahawks. Don't be the 12th man. Oh my God. Okay. Anyway, thank you for emailing.

Again, that's ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Send in your anecdotes. I guess that's our first fantasy court ruling of the year. So there's some fantasy glicks. I love facts. And then also check out the ringer fantasy football draft guide. That's fantasy football. org.com.

And then you can email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail. So thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K. Thank you to our anonymous emailer for that anecdote. Yeah. Screw that guy. All right. Thank you.

We'll see you guys next week. Good luck, everyone, with your draft.